Scottish flag

freelunch · Sep 28, 2008

We had a lovely day in London today. The air was quite still. I noticed that the contrails from the jets were not disturbed by the wind at all, hanging in the sky for a long time, straight as could be. At sunset, I snapped this cross of St. Andrews the Scottish national flag:

And this one:

LaFoto · Sep 29, 2008

"The Scottish Flag" - what a nice find.
And that sunset ... wow. Was the sun that purple??? I have seen it ORANGE often, but that colour is quite something else! Cool looking.

freelunch · Sep 29, 2008

My wife and I both remarked on the colour of the sun. Extra special pollution, I guess. It was a very deep orange until it touched the horizon. Maybe that purple is some sort of chromatic aberration?

pm63 · Sep 29, 2008

Nice find!

johngpt · Oct 22, 2008

freelunch said:
My wife and I both remarked on the colour of the sun. Extra special pollution, I guess. It was a very deep orange until it touched the horizon. Maybe that purple is some sort of chromatic aberration?

I don't believe it was an aberration of camera/processor. I seem to recall something I'd read once on Astronomy Picture of the Day, about a violet band of light, more commonly seen at sunset than sunrise, when one can see the horizon. "Belt of 'Something'" I think it was called. I have such a wonderful memory, don't I?

The sun was probably passing briefly through that band.

Oh, great photos Jerry. :mrgreen:

Resin42 · Oct 23, 2008

I came over all patriotic for a second there.

Apparently in days gone by seeing the Saltire in the sky on the morning of a battle was a sign that Scotland would be victorious that day. One of our newspapers printed a photo of this in the French skies on the day of one of our matches in the France 98 World Cup. We were beaten obviously. Perhaps jet trails don't count.

Nice shots.